Creating Content That Performs Well on Google: A Deeper Dive

It is no secret that ranking on the front page of Google is the aim of almost any business. Many know that ranking on the front page leads to much more traffic, leads, and potential sales.

But with so many businesses vying for the top spot, how can you make your brand stand out?

Creating content that is optimised for search engines is key. But unfortunately, doing this requires an expert insight into the importance of keywords and how to optimise content for specific audiences.

This article will discuss how to create content that does well on Google in more detail, helping you improve your website’s ranking.

What to Consider Before Writing any Content for Your Website

What is the correct format for your content?

When it comes to creating content for your website, there are several options available to you.

Before anything else, think about the best format for your chosen piece of content. Rather than blindly assuming blog content is the way to go, consider other options too. 

Different forms of content to consider

When it comes to ranking on the front page of Google, there are several different forms of content to consider:

• Website pages: Websites with well-crafted content, optimised titles and descriptions, and relevant keywords can rank on the front page of Google.
• Blogs: Blogs with relevant content, optimised titles and descriptions, and relevant keywords can rank on the front page of Google.
• Videos: Videos uploaded to YouTube or other sites can rank on the front page of Google, provided they are optimised and have relevant descriptions, titles, and keywords.
• Images: Images that are well-optimised, relevant, and of high quality can rank on the front page of Google.
• Social media posts: Well-crafted and optimised posts can rank on the front page of Google.
• Local business listings: Local business listings with accurate information, optimised titles and descriptions, and relevant keywords can rank on the front page of Google.

Is your content SEO-friendly?

Look, we all want to create fun, engaging,  and insightful content for our audience.

But if your content isn’t SEO-friendly, it won’t rank highly on Google, and less of your audience will ever consume it.

Ways to make your content more SEO-friendly

• Here are some ways to make your content more SEO-friendly:
• Use relevant and targeted keywords throughout your content.
• Utilise metadata and link-building techniques.
• Optimise page titles, headings, and other elements.
• Make sure the content is well-structured, concise, and easy to read.
• Include images, videos, and other multimedia elements.

Is your content relevant and interesting?

• It’s all well and good making content that meets SEO requirements, but if it’s incredibly dull and uninspiring, your readers will quickly click off your website.
• Many websites require people to continue coming back, and searching for more content, so you need to ensure your content is worth coming back for!
• Ways to check your content is relevant and interesting.
• Make sure you create high-quality content.
• Ensure your content is well-written and readable on mobile devices.
• Ensure it meets the particular word count.
• Incorporate relevant keywords into the content.
• Use images and videos to enhance your content.
• Research trending topics to produce content that is relevant and timely.
• Create unique content that is tailored to your audience.
• Use analytics to track the performance of your content.
• Regularly review and update content to keep it current.
• Write a comprehensive description and page title.

Have you executed your keyword research?

Additionally, using keywords throughout your content is important, as this will help ensure that Google can more easily index your website.

How to find keywords for your content

You can use tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs to help you find the right keywords in your content or look at competitor websites to see the words they are using.

If you have a small budget, a straightforward strategy is to research your chosen topic and study what the top five results have in common. What terms do they use in their title? What terms constantly appear through the Heading 2s and Heading 3s?

Alternatively, you can check out our article on discovering local keywords for more guidance.

Is the article well-structured, and does it answer the query in question?

Finally, ensuring that your website is well-structured and organised is essential, as this will make it easier for Google to crawl and index your pages. By considering all these factors, you should be able to create content that is likely to rank highly with Google.

What Not to Do When Writing Content for Your Website

While it is certainly important to focus heavily on what you should include when creating great content, it is also worth making a note of things that shouldn’t be done.

Let’s take a look at the things you should avoid when writing content for your website.

Keyword stuffing

Firstly, it is important to avoid keyword stuffing, as this can be seen as a form of ‘spam’ by search engines and may lead to a lower ranking.

Google does not like keyword stuffing because it is a form of black hat SEO that is intended to manipulate search engine rankings.

Keyword stuffing involves the excessive repetition of keywords in website content to increase a website’s visibility and search traffic in search engine results. This practice is generally considered unethical and is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Keyword stuffing can hurt a website’s ranking, as it can lead to a penalty from Google for engaging in this type of manipulative behaviour.

Furthermore, keyword stuffing can also lead to a website being penalised for having low-quality content and not being helpful to users.

By avoiding keyword stuffing, websites can ensure they follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and give users the best possible experience.

Plagiarism

The dreaded “P” word! While it might be quick and easy to pull a quote or statistic from another website, you should do so with extreme caution. If flagged as plagiarism, your entire website could be penalised.

Google does not like plagiarism because it undermines the value of original content. The search engine takes plagiarism seriously as it can lead to a decrease in the overall quality of the web, which Google does not want.

As a result, Google has algorithms that can detect plagiarism and will penalise websites that are found to have plagiarised content by ranking them lower in their search engine results.

This means that websites with plagiarised content will not appear on the front page of Google’s search results and instead will be pushed to the back pages, making them harder to find.

Website owners must ensure all content is original and not plagiarised.

Produce irrelevant content

It can be very tempting to try and jump on trending topics in the hope that your content may go viral.

However, this attempt will be in vain if the topic has nothing to do with your business or website.

Algorithms are designed to prioritise websites with relevancy, so if your website is full of irrelevant content, it won’t rank well on the front page of Google. 

Creating content relevant to your website’s topic is essential, as this will help your ranking by showing the search engines that you are an expert in the field.

Frequently Asked Questions About How to Gain More Organic Traffic

How do I know what content my target audience searches for?

There are several tools such as Ahrefs and SEMRush that helps you identify particular keywords that your audience searches for and how often they search for them.

Can content provide insightful analysis for future articles?

Absolutely! By utilising tools like Google Analytics, you can see which content resonates with your audience, influencing what content gets produced in the future.

How can I see the preferred word count Google wants me to stick to?

You can either use tools like SurferSEO that provide an average to aim for or look at the top five results in Google and try to emulate their word count.

Final Thoughts on Creating High-Quality Content That Performs Well on Google

As you can see, creating excellent SEO-friendly copy is not easy, but the rewards are worth putting in the hard yards.

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